Phenolic said:Thanks, William! I'll post an update on how it goes. I think buying new bulbs is wasteful, even if freesias are relatively inexpensive.



Out of curiosity how are the summers like where you live? Are temperatures consistently above 25 ºC/77 ºF for at least 2 to 4 weeks? Do your freesias lose their foliage in summer or in fall?

I'm playing around with room-temperature storage since the foliage on my freesias stayed green through three weeks of 30 ºC/86 ºF daytime temperatures, and only just started dying late into the summer. It might have something to do with soil moisture, I think. I kept them well-watered the entire time.

Update: My freesias are refusing to grow!

Although the bulbs didn't dry out over the winter and spring none of my freesia bulbs have grown. Big bulbs simply split into two or three smaller bulbs.

Very late replying to this but thanks for sharing your experience, Phenolic. I suspected it probably would be quite difficult storing/preparing them for bloom at home, but a brave attempt, although I understand you must be a bit disappointed with the result.

Here are some tetra freesia seedlings of mine, just growing in the open in a 200mm pot.One has about 13 buds with 5 branches to the stem.

Lovely, Paul! Do you grow them in a greenhouse?

@gemini_sage Neal, freesias are so easy to grow in my climate and you would go nuts with the fragrance filling the whole garden, not to mention how you would blend in the different colour hues into your garden or at work.All mine are grown outside in pots or polystyrene boxes, without any cover whatsoever and not lifted.Having said that, the 4 boxes of seedlings are jammed full after 4 years growth and going downhill this year.Need to separate them, new soil with plenty of grit.
One of the tasks when one first buys freesia corms from the big Dutch growers/importers, is to dehusk them.Look for any signs of fusarium and ask for a refund or replacement.It's hopeless to try and save them, burn them or trash them, fusarium will spread and live in your soil for years.Pollinate your blooms, sow the seed and you will have heaps.
I know in your climate it must be a challenge to keep them going year to year.

You're right, the winters here are too cold for them. A lot of folks in California grow them quite effortlessly from what I understand. A greenhouse I love to visit in Lexington KY has a huge potted rosemary plant they use as a mother plant for lots of cuttings each year, and they have freesia in the pot with it. Every winter they burst into glorious bloom and scent the greenhouse.

You're correct Neil! I planted a mixed bag of them years ago and now I just pull them when they dry, because the yellow and white multiply like rabbits. The red and purple haven't multiplied at all though.

What a delightful "weed" to have! The whites and yellows also perform better as cut flowers, the other colors don't seem to last quite as well. I do floral design and decor for weddings and last weekend I had the pleasure of working with freesia. It was a big wedding and it wore me out, but that fragrance was such pleasant aromatherapy

I've tried growing them a few times, but it seems our window of time between being too cold and too warm for them is so short they don't have time to develop properly before they fry in the heat. I saw buds develop just as the plants browned and shriveled.

Freesias grow wild on the island. There are swathes of them in some areas.

Here are some white ones flowering at the moment with Doba Lilies.

Glen,once you have those wild freesias, you have them for life.I dug a few, well quite a few, that were growing wild up in the Dandenong Ranges about 7 years ago.Now they have self seeded in my martagon lilium boxes, but the scent is so welcome in late winter/early spring that I would not be without them.

This is a pretty good pink tetra freesia seedling flowering now.

Thanks Paul. This is the first year I have finally managed to transplant them to the garden successfully. I do love them too.

Do the seed flower in the first year?

Last year I had 2 blues, 2 pinks, 2 whites and a red. I let seed fall where it may and this year, no red, 1 white, 1 pink and a dozen or so blues with pink edging on the petals unlike any from the previous year.

Welcome to NGA @Protoavis

Protoavis, those sure sound like seedlings. They could be a cross of 2 of the varieties you planted (crossed by bees) or could be seedlings from a self pollinated plant- hybrids typically produce offspring that differ from the parents.

It's what I'm assuming cross or selfing, just surprised that they flowered in the first year. Would have thought they'd take longer.

That is fast development for a bulb plant. Sounds like your climate and garden conditions are just right for them.

Well yes, older cultivars have naturalized here (Sydney, Australia) you see them everywhere for a few weeks each year.

I just figured they'd take more than a year to flower from seed. Just interesting that many new ones bloomed this year that are distinctly different to what I planted. I'll be able to tell 100% next year, once a pod is ready I'll plant some seed in a pot away from the others and see if they flower in August.

It is that time of the year, my freesias are starting to wake up with the Fall cool down and the sporadic rains now coming back here. I do hope it will grow better this growing season.

So just to fill in the question from my previous post up above.

Yes, at least here in this climate, seed will bloom in a year. The blooming seedlings are a few weeks later than the existing plants (although late winter was unusually warm this year, I think every thing has been a bit early) but I think that is because they were in small pots, experienced a mold outbreak, were a bit overcrowded, etc.